so much should be made
of the matter. "Have the steward change our baggage to the new
quarters, and then come and show me where they are, and let us forget
all about it."

"It is most kind of you to take it so good-naturedly," protested the
officer. "The embarrassing thing to us is that, as there is no vacant
stateroom in the second-cabin, we shall have to transfer you to the
first."

Vard looked at him.

"And you expect me to pay the difference?" he asked.

"Oh, no; not at all," the other hastily assured him. "We had not thought
of such a thing! But we feared you might have some objection to
first-class, and that the change would inconvenience you still more."

Vard smiled grimly.

"As a matter of fact, I _have_ an objection to first-class," he said,
"but it is largely that of wasting money for which I have a better use.
The people one sees there also do not appeal to me. I fear most of them
are idle fools. But perhaps the library is better selected."

"Oh, it is much larger than this!" the officer agreed. "I may take it,
then, that you consent?"

"Certainly. We can't stay in a stateroom that smells as ours does."

"Then," said the other, "if you will inform your daughter, I will
myself conduct you to your new quarters."

So Miss Vard was summoned, their steward was loaded with the baggage,
and after a glance around No. 514 to assure herself that nothing had
been overlooked, Miss Vard found herself following her father and the
white-capped German along a narrow passage, past a steel door that was
unlocked for them, and up the companion-way to a very handsome suite
opening on the upper promenade. It consisted of two bedrooms and a
sitting-room, and Kasia, as she glanced about it, could not repress an
exclamation of surprise.

"Are we to stay here?" she asked.

"Yes, Madame," and the official smiled. "It is the only thing we have to
offer. I am glad that it pleases you. It will help you to forget the
inconvenience of changing," and, having waited until the steward had
deposited his burden, he motioned him out before him, bowed and
withdrew.

Kasia made a quick tour of the room, admiring its elegant furnishings,
glanced into the bedrooms, and then came back to her father.

"I don't understand it!" she said. "Why should they give us all this?"

Her father regarded her in some surprise.

"Why, my dear," he said, "you have heard the explanation. I do not for a
moment imagine that the steamship company w